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Troy Tassier

@troytassier.bsky.social
9.2K followers 3.7K following 2.4K posts

Public health, health equity, economic inequality, complex systems, social networks Economist at Fordham Author: The Rich Flee and the Poor Take the Bus: How Our Unequal Society Fails Us during Outbreaks (JHU Press) Book webpage: troytassier.com

PostsRepliesMedia
Troy Tassier @troytassier.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
Read this list & don’t forget all the GOP members of congress who allowed this to happen by not standing up & doing their jobs. You may think the democratic candidates in your district or state have flaws, but there isn’t a single gop member of congress that deserves to come back to dc. Vote!
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Prof Gavin Yamey MD MPH @gavinyamey.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
When Musk AND Rubio said “not a single person” died as a result of shutting down USAID, I wanted to vomit An estimated 700,000 people died (500,000 were kids) within a year of USAID being “put in the wood-chipper” Studies by Brooke Nichols at BU and by CGD researchers estimated a similar number
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Amy Maxmen, PhD @amymaxmen.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
Absolutely stunning/horrifying to see a 5th measles death in PA. This means the outbreak is probably far higher than numbers count, seeing as roughly 1-3 people die per 1,000. Many people aren't being tested. Also: I'm going to states now for info, not the CDC* app.powerbigov.us/view?r=eyJrI...
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Troy Tassier @troytassier.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
When I lived in Iowa City, the college bookstore sold shirts mocking those who confused the “flyover” states. They read, University of Iowa Idaho City, Ohio I’m sure they appreciate the Missouri senators new marketing suggestion of shirts reading, University of Atlanta Hawks Iowa City, Georgia 🤷‍♂️
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Troy Tassier @troytassier.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
The same “AI” that often makes simple errors like giving me the wrong address for a restaurant? Ya, happy to trust it for life changing/ saving decisions. 🤷‍♂️🤔
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Troy Tassier @troytassier.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
If you’re interested in Malcom Gladwell’s new book on gun violence, do yourself a favor and pick up @josiahbates.bsky.social book first. He’s spent his career studying and reporting on gun violence. It’s excellent.
amazon.com
In These Streets: Reporting from the Front Lines of Inner-City Gun Violence
In These Streets: Reporting from the Front Lines of Inner-City Gun Violence - Kindle edition by Bates, Josiah. Download it once and read it on your Kindle device, PC, phones or tablets. Use features like bookmarks, note taking and highlighting while reading In These Streets: Reporting from the Front Lines of Inner-City Gun Violence.
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Prof Gavin Yamey MD MPH @gavinyamey.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
Remember RFK Jr’s MAHA food advisory panel? The one that urged us to eat more beef tallow, red meat & full fat dairy—which would worsen the public’s health? You’ll never believe this: half the panel (HALF!) had financial ties to the livestock or dairy industries MAHA is such a big gift to Big Ag!
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Erin J. Wamsley 🧠📈😴 @wamsleylab.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
Yeah, that's a problem www.chronicle.com/article/high... #academicsky #edusky
A line graph demonstrating the nonacademic spending has outpaced academic spending, from 2010 to 2024. The note indicates this is for 146 R1 institutions. Source: NCES, Created with Datawrapper
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Troy Tassier @troytassier.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
Lots and lots of (under 18) HS boys are on these apps. Letting these proliferate without more oversight is a losing bet for society.
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Troy Tassier @troytassier.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
What happens when US News adds earnings to their college rankings? They reveal the gender gap. The most prominent women’s colleges in the US all fell in the rankings. Not because they became worse educators, but because we have organized our society so that women get paid less than men. 1/2
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Troy Tassier @troytassier.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
Frustrating viewpoint: “How voters view the law depends largely on which side of the federal ledger they find themselves — recipients of tax cuts or beneficiaries of programs that have been cut.” Large swaths of people benefit from the tax cuts but also see the inhumanity of the benefit cuts.
nytimes.com
Trump’s Signature Tax Bill Is Starting to Bite Before the Election (Gift Article)
The tax cuts in President Trump’s signature achievement were the Republicans’ answer to voters’ economic struggles, but its health care and food assistance cuts are taking a toll.
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Troy Tassier @troytassier.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
What happens when US News adds earnings to their college rankings? They reveal the gender gap. The most prominent women’s colleges in the US all fell in the rankings. Not because they became worse educators, but because we have organized our society so that women get paid less than men. 1/2
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ProPublica @propublica.org · 22/09/2026
Sen. Susan Collins helped steer millions in federal defense contracts to Navatek, whose CEO illegally funneled thousands of dollars to her campaign. The FBI sought to launch a probe and was eyeing Collins and other lawmakers. Then Trump gutted the unit in charge. THREAD 🧵
Martin Kao, CEO of defense contractor Navatek, poses next to Sen. Susan Collins for a photo. Collins is holding a model of a boat in her hands. Behind them is a large sign with the Navatek logo.
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Troy Tassier @troytassier.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
Jaw dropping and brazen bribery that Trump brushed away! This should be the biggest story of the election cycle.
propublica.org
The FBI Anti-Corruption Squad Was Circling Susan Collins — Until Trump Got in the Way
After the FBI caught a defense contractor’s CEO making illegal campaign contributions, it sought to launch a sweeping political bribery probe involving Collins and others. Then the second Trump admini...
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Prof Gavin Yamey MD MPH @gavinyamey.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
Thread 👇👇👇
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Troy Tassier @troytassier.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
MAGA appointees as arbiters of heath research. Who thinks that will make us great? “The proposed board would represent a significant escalation in the administration’s effort to exert political control over federal grant-making for health research.”
politico.com
Trump asked budget chief to draft order bringing health research funding under his control
The move came after the NIH director refused Trump’s request to cut Harvard grants in an Oval Office meeting.
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Troy Tassier @troytassier.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
Easy to forget how beautiful your workplace is until you catch it on a day like today!
Scene from fordham’s campus in the Bronx.
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Luke @161bentzl.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
As global researchers begin work on the next U.N. climate assessment, fears are growing that the Trump admin will mess with critical U.S. climate data. In response, scientists are preparing to transfer vast troves of that data to repositories in Germany. #Climate #Data e360.yale.edu/features/ger...
e360.yale.edu
Why Germany Is Building an Ark for U.S. Climate Data
As researchers around the world begin work on the next U.N. climate assessment, fears are growing that the Trump administration could meddle with critical U.S. climate data. In response, scientists ar...
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Prof Gavin Yamey MD MPH @gavinyamey.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
Important thread 👇
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Troy Tassier @troytassier.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
True 👇 The US didn’t begin giving a second measles dose, as is recommended today, until 1989. A large number of people in their mid 40s and older, who think they are protected, likely are not, or they have limited immunity at best.
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Troy Tassier @troytassier.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
100% sad. This also begs 2 questions: 1) this is a large number of deaths in a short time w/ abt 700 cases. How many cases haven’t we counted? 2) Last year we had a lower case fatality ratio than predicted by the ~1 in 1,000. How many deaths did gop led states misattribute as not measles associated?
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Troy Tassier @troytassier.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
In the shadow of the Black Death, labor shortages led to inflation and attempts by the king to freeze prices. Then a poll tax led to the peasants revolt. Looking forward to seeing how this is portrayed in The Uprising (which unfortunately I didn’t have time to see this weekend).
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Amy Maxmen, PhD @amymaxmen.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
Another unvaccinated person has likely died of measles. www.nytimes.com/2026/09/13/w...
nytimes.com
Unvaccinated Woman Likely Died of Measles Complications, Pa. County Coroner Says
The case is the third reported death linked to a rapidly expanding outbreak that has sickened more than 670 people in the state.
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Troy Tassier @troytassier.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
🧵👇
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Troy Tassier @troytassier.bsky.social · 13/09/2026
In most situations, POTUS has far less control over key macro economic variables (like prices and gdp) than the public assumes. This is an exception. 100% Trump’s own doing.
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Troy Tassier @troytassier.bsky.social · 12/09/2026
Billboard of the year?
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Troy Tassier @troytassier.bsky.social · 12/09/2026
Thinking that we need more of: “In medicine, poverty is often screened for, documented & then ignored as a “social” issue outside the scope of medicine. It becomes a side note in a medical chart. We do not treat it or prevent it w/ the same urgency as we treat infections, diabetes or hypertension.”
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Troy Tassier @troytassier.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
Two national tragedies. One on 9/11 and another that began in spring 2020. Im glad we take a day each year to remember 9/11 and its victims. I wish we could do the same for covid. Pictures below of England’s Covid wall. One heart for each death stretching 500M along the Thames opposite Parliament.
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Troy Tassier @troytassier.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
From South Park to… South America.
thedailybeast.com
‘South Park’ Reveals Official Name Change to Humiliate Trump
The change comes 29 years after the series’ premiere.
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Troy Tassier @troytassier.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
NYC area peeps, If you’re in the city tonight, this should be a great event. @fernham.bsky.social
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Prof Gavin Yamey MD MPH @gavinyamey.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
Durham offers free breakfast & lunch to all Durham Public Schools students (no questions asked, not means tested). This is the way. The social, educational, & economic returns are massive (every $1 invested returns over $2: www.rockefellerfoundation.org/grantee-impa...). It’s a win-win-win policy.
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Troy Tassier @troytassier.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
This was fun to write. We often read the story of John Snow and the Broad Street water pump as an isolated event. But the context was much broader and included the expanding sanitation movement, a conservative Brit responsible for the atrocities of the new poor laws, and even Charles Dickens.
peacham.co
The Decline and Fall of Miasma Theory · Peacham
For more than two thousand years, physicians blamed disease on foul-smelling air. Following London’s 1854 cholera epidemic, that theory began to crumble.
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Troy Tassier @troytassier.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
Nail on the head with the opening paragraph. "There have been many trade conflicts in history, some of them more destructive than the US-Canada fight. But I don’t think there has ever been a dispute this stupid."
paulkrugman.substack.com
Adding Injury to Insult, Canada Edition
This idiotic trade war will hurt more than people realize
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Troy Tassier @troytassier.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
This was fun to write. We often read the story of John Snow and the Broad Street water pump as an isolated event. But the context was much broader and included the expanding sanitation movement, a conservative Brit responsible for the atrocities of the new poor laws, and even Charles Dickens.
peacham.co
The Decline and Fall of Miasma Theory · Peacham
For more than two thousand years, physicians blamed disease on foul-smelling air. Following London’s 1854 cholera epidemic, that theory began to crumble.
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Troy Tassier @troytassier.bsky.social · 28/08/2026
Surprise, no surprise (but good to have it documented) "We find in-hospital mortality increases for Black but not White patients as hospitals reach capacity...findings are not explained by differential patient selection...sicker Black patients wait longer for care than healthier White patients..."
pubs.aeaweb.org
AEA Web - American Economic Review - 116(9):3552 - Abstract
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Troy Tassier @troytassier.bsky.social · 28/08/2026
It begins…
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Troy Tassier @troytassier.bsky.social · 28/08/2026
Interesting that he skipped the usual victim blaming (co-morbidities) or dr blaming (they treated them incorrectly) and went straight to “the moon landing was fake” style fabrication conspiracy.
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Troy Tassier @troytassier.bsky.social · 28/08/2026
The five largest states by population in the US are CA, TX, FL, NY and PA. 2 of these 5 do not allow personal belief or religious exemptions to mmr vax requirements in schools. Can you guess which 2? Hint, only 3 other states don’t allow these exemptions: CT, ME, & WV. What do they have in common?
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Prof Gavin Yamey MD MPH @gavinyamey.bsky.social · 27/08/2026
I suspect that, as they did during the Covid pandemic ("nobody died of Covid, they died with Covid"), the usual MAHA/MAGA crew will say the newborn died "with" measles Or if the newborn had any other condition, RFK Jr will repeat his usual line (he says "only sick kids should die of measles")
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Troy Tassier @troytassier.bsky.social · 27/08/2026
No longer a slippery slope but a cliff? “The question for us is whether what we publish from contributors reflects an author’s original argument, and if the author has the standing and credibility to make it. …In Druckenmiller’s case …nobody can doubt that his op-ed is his genuine opinion.” 1/2
thehill.com
Wall Street Journal: Billionaire did not violate policies by using AI for op-ed
Paul Gigot, the editorial page editor of The Wall Street Journal, said investor Stanley Druckenmiller did not violate the Journal’s policies when he used artificial intelligence to write an op-ed t…
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Troy Tassier @troytassier.bsky.social · 27/08/2026
“For patients and families, the key message is that myocarditis was rare after both exposures, but recorded myocarditis, pericarditis, and all-cause mortality were consistently more frequent after SARS-CoV-2 infection than after BNT162b2 vaccination,” they added.
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Liz Szabo @lizszabo.bsky.social · 27/08/2026
A *lower* risk of myocarditis. That’s good news and contradicts the anti-vaccine messages you hear so often.
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Joey Politano🏳️‍🌈 @josephpolitano.bsky.social · 25/08/2026
Druckenmiller admits his Op-Ed was written with AI this morning, at the absolute bare minimum this should shift the editorial standards at the WSJ www.notus.org/media/stanle...
notus.org
Billionaire Stanley Druckenmiller’s WSJ Op-Ed Criticizing Bessent Was Written With AI
“I write everything using AI now,” Druckenmiller, who questioned the treasury secretary’s bond market interventions, said.
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Troy Tassier @troytassier.bsky.social · 26/08/2026
6 million people lose food from their table.
abc7news.com
Enrollment in SNAP grocery aid drops faster than expected as President Trump's provisions take hold
The number of people receiving SNAP food aid has fallen more than 13% in a year as changes to the biggest U.S. food aid program start to kick in.
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Troy Tassier @troytassier.bsky.social · 25/08/2026
And Lancaster County is especially low, abt 6% below the state avg and I’m sure some schools & communities are significantly lower. A decade ago, places like this may have felt more safe because measles cases were far more rare. Now, locations like this are going to be found more and more often.
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Prof Gavin Yamey MD MPH @gavinyamey.bsky.social · 25/08/2026
RFK Jr has been peddling dangerous BS about the MMR vaccine for a very long time; now he runs the US health system & so he has the largest platform possible to spew his decades-old conspiracy theories Physicians like Oz, Bhattacharya, & Makary have stood hand in hand with him, nodding & smiling
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Troy Tassier @troytassier.bsky.social · 25/08/2026
Tired of hearing about Mamdani’s “honeymoon” w/ the polls. Is it so hard to accept that people like him and he’s doing a good job? 👏👏👏
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Prof Gavin Yamey MD MPH @gavinyamey.bsky.social · 25/08/2026
Oh fuck. I know pediatricians in PA & since RFK Jr came to power their work lives have often been painful as they've faced parents persuaded by RFK Jr not to vaccinate their kids & they worried that deaths may be coming to PA & their worries were justified. We have to stop the MAHA kookery FFS.
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Troy Tassier @troytassier.bsky.social · 25/08/2026
I don’t want to hear a f-ing word from RFK jr abt the docs not treating them right, or they didn’t get them vitamin A, or any other charlatan crap. Their deaths are on you and your anti-vax ilk.
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